[GNC] File format question

[Simon Roberts]

Ah, excellent, thank you. I can continue with the compressed format for the
main file and simply use zcat when needed :)

The wiki description of the XML format doesn't seem to offer much, but I'm
not worried about that, I recall from previous forays in that file that
it's pretty self evident what's going on (at least for the purpose I have
in mind--i.e. putting names to UUIDs).

I guess the only part unresolved is whether there is anything outlining the
log format. the single character code at column 1 seems like it might be
important, but I'm at a loss for a guess as to what it's describing. It
*feels* like it might explain what the numerous seemingly duplicated, and
often zero-value, entries are about. But that's a wild stab in the dark :)

Many thanks Glenn for very helpful pointers!

Cheers,
Simon


On Wed, Jan 31, 2024 at 11:39 AM Glenn Fowler <gfowler1 at outlook.com> wrote:

> Hi,
>
> Yes you have the option to compress the XML or not.
>
> Here is the info you are looking for:
>
> https://www.gnucash.org/docs/v5/C/gnucash-guide/basics-files1.html
>
> https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/GnuCash_XML_format
> ------------------------------
> *From:* gnucash-user <gnucash-user-bounces+gfowler1=
> outlook.com at gnucash.org> on behalf of Simon Roberts <
> simon at dancingcloudservices.com>
> *Sent:* Wednesday, January 31, 2024 1:11 PM
> *To:* Gnucash Users <gnucash-user at gnucash.org>
> *Subject:* [GNC] File format question
>
> Hi all, perhaps I should be asking this on the developer's list, but I
> figured that misdirecting here would be less disruptive / annoying than
> miscrirecting there. Please forgive me if this is the wrong place.
>
> I'm investigating using logfiles as a means to identify changes that will
> be made by my accountants for my year end. This leads me to two questions
>
> First, is there documentation I can look at on this topic"? I didn't find
> anything in the user guide, but am not particularly surprised at that.
>
> Second, I notice that the main data file is binary. I thought it was XML
> (perhaps that was at version 4?) But what's odder is that even if I
> expressly request "save as XML", I still get a binary file. Is this
> compressed, and if so, does anyone know what the compression is? I'm aware
> that interpreting the logs will be much easier if I can correlate the UUIDs
> of the accounts (used in the logs) with the actual account info (which I
> have previously seen in a tolerably intelligible format in the XML files of
> old).
>
> Any pointers / references?
>
> TIA
> Simon
>
> --
> Simon Roberts
> 303 249 3613
> https://www.youtube.com/@DancingCloudServices
> https://www.linkedin.com/in/simonhgroberts/
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-- 
Simon Roberts
303 249 3613
https://www.youtube.com/@DancingCloudServices
https://www.linkedin.com/in/simonhgroberts/